A Pakistani soldier watches the Indian border
from a bunker in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

SRINAGAR, India  India and Pakistan continued to
trade artillery fire Tuesday across their disputed border in Kashmir, despite
diplomatic efforts to prevent the nuclear rivals from going to war.

Although no deaths were reported Tuesday, several people
have been killed in daily firefights in Kashmir since a suicide attack on the
Indian Parliament killed 14 people Dec. 13. India blames the attack on Pakistan-based
Islamic militants fighting its rule in Kashmir.

India accuses Pakistan of stoking the rebellion in the
divided Himalayan region. New Delhi demands that Islamabad crack down on Islamic
militants operating on its territory.

Both
countries say they want to avoid war, but their differences over Kashmir seem
intractable  as they have for the past half-century.

Because both countries are now nuclear powers, the dispute
over Kashmir is receiving more of the world's attention. British Prime Minister
Tony Blair visited India and Pakistan this week to discuss the threat of an
Indo-Pakistani war going nuclear. And the United States wants Pakistan's military
to stay focused on the search for Osama bin Laden along the Pakistani-Afghan
border, not on a dispute with India.

A look at Kashmir and the history behind the tensions,
drawn in part from Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique
Lapierre, a book on the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947:

Q: What is Kashmir?

A: Kashmir is a land-locked territory where India, Pakistan,
China and a bit of Afghanistan meet in the north of the Indian subcontinent.
It is a beautiful land noted for fruit orchards, lakes and mountains. Before
fighting intensified more than 12 years ago, the mainly Muslim region was a
tourist attraction and honeymoon spot for Indian newlyweds. At least 28,000
people have died in Kashmir since 1990.

 Religion: 70%
Muslim, predominantly in the north, with various Muslim sects in pockets
throughout region. 30% Hindu, population primarily in southern regions;
Sikhs and Buddhists also throughout region.

 Industries: Agriculture
employs 80% of residents, who farm saffron and rice and breed cattle and
Kashmir goats for wool.

 Government: Chief
Minister Farooq Abdullah of India's National Conference Party was elected
in 1996.

* Colonial system still in
place moves capital to warmer southern city during cold winter months.

Source: Research by William
Risser, USA TODAY

Q: How did the trouble start in Kashmir?

A: Some blame Britain. In 1846, the British East India
Co. sold Kashmir to a Hindu prince, a maharajah, for 6 million rupees and an
annual tribute of six shawls spun from the gossamer wool of Kashmiri goats.
The British overlooked the fact they were selling Muslim territory to a Hindu
outsider. Kashmir became one of several princely states in the subcontinent
outside direct British control. The boundaries of the Kashmiri maharajah's domain
were never clearly spelled out. When the subcontinent gained independence from
Britain and then was partitioned into predominantly Hindu India and mainly Muslim
Pakistan in 1947, the princely states were allowed to decide which country they
would join.

The Kashmiri maharajah, Hari Singh, who was holding out
for independence, put off a decision as long as possible. He procrastinated
until Pakistan dispatched Pashtun tribesmen to seize Kashmir. Singh then quickly
agreed to join India. Pakistan and India fought over Kashmir until 1948. It
remained under Indian control.

At the insistence of the last British viceroy of India,
Lord Mountbatten, Kashmir's accession to India was supposed to be temporary.
After order was restored, a referendum was to be held in which Kashmiris chose
between India and Pakistan. The United Nations passed several resolutions calling
for a referendum. But India never allowed it to happen.

India and Pakistan fought another war over Kashmir in 1965.
In 1972, the Simla Agreement drew a Line of Control dividing Kashmir into Indian
and Pakistan-controlled areas and called for bilateral talks to reach a long-term
solution. India controls two-thirds of Kashmir and has the most valuable land.
India refers to its section as Jammu and Kashmir state. China seized a sparsely
populated piece of Kashmir in a 1962 war with India.

Q: Why do India and Pakistan want Kashmir so much?

A: Pakistan bases its claim to Kashmir on its mainly Muslim
population. Of the 12 million people, 70% adhere to Islam. Indian analysts say
Pakistan insists on controlling Kashmir because the Pakistani military needs
an ongoing conflict with India to justify its continued political dominance
at home. Pakistan's leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, took over the government
in a 1999 coup.

India does not want to give the region up in part because
the loss of Kashmir might embolden other restive Indian regions and the nation's
120 million Muslims to seek independence. And it is important symbolically for
India to have a Muslim majority state: It shows that India is a secular country,
not a Hindu state.

Q: What do the people of Kashmir want?

A: At one time, most of the residents would have voted
to join Pakistan. Increasingly, Kashmiris are calling for independence. A majority
clearly would vote to leave India if given the chance. However, a significant
minority of Kashmiris  Hindus who live around the winter capital, Jammu
 support Indian control. The population around the summer capital, Srinagar,
is almost entirely Muslim and supports either Pakistan or independence.

In 1989, embittered by Indian misrule and rigged local
elections, Kashmiri Muslims revolted against India. Indian security forces responded
with a brutal crackdown. Human rights groups accuse them of abuses including
the torture and summary execution of hundreds of Kashmiris. Pakistan has supported
the separatists. Islamic militants have been allowed to train in Pakistani camps
and launch attacks inside India.

By K.M. Chaudary

Fearing for their safety, a family moves with their belongings
on a tractor from their home on the Pakistan-India border.

India claims Pakistan now controls the separatist movement.
Separatists in Kashmir strongly disagree. "Yes, we are being supported by Pakistan
 politically, diplomatically and morally," says Abdul Ghani Butt, chairman
of the All Parties Hurriat Conference, a political group opposed to Indian rule
over Kashmir. "But we are fighting our own fight."

The Pakistani militants are accused of introducing into
traditionally moderate Kashmir an extreme, Taliban-style brand of Islam. Islamic
extremists were threatening last year to throw acid in the faces of Kashmiri
Muslim women who did not wear veils. Despite the threats, most Kashmiri women
continue to walk around with their faces uncovered.

Q: Is there a chance for compromise?

A: India is dead set against giving up Kashmir. Pakistan
continues to demand a referendum it assumes it would win. Pakistan doesn't want
an independent Kashmir, which would mean giving up territory it already owns
and surrendering control over the strategic Karakurm highway linking Pakistan
to China. Beijing also would not surrender its share of Kashmir to a newly independent
Kashmiri state.

As a precondition for any substantive talks, New Delhi
demands that Islamabad eliminate the Pakistan-based groups waging guerrilla
war in Kashmir. Musharraf has begun to crack down on the groups, but he must
move cautiously because the groups have broad support in the Pakistani military
and public, which considers them "freedom fighters."